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- Hi, my name's Janine and I'm studying
a Masters in Social Innovation at Cambridge University.
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The reason I've sort of come to study in that field
is I that I work as an angel investor
with a number of start ups
and one of my start ups, in particular,
is in the education field.
That's Crimson Education.
So we assist students to get into top universities
in the world, and really with my work
with the young people at Crimson,
and living in London, I'm a New Zealander,
but I am living in London,
I thought, well, I might have a go
at trying at one of these top universities as well.
The actual program that I'm doing,
it's only in its second year,
you know from the point of view at looking
world's wicked problems, which are things like
poverty, disease, and inequality in education,
which is the particular area that I'm looking in.
♪ Will you take part in my life, my love ♪
♪ That is my dream ♪
♪ Life is but a dream, it's what you make it ♪
♪ Always try to give, don't ever take it ♪
- So what is the Master's in Social Innovation?
- It's a fairly new program at the University of Cambridge.
So it basically looks at what's called wicked problems,
so big problems in the world and how we can
come up with some innovative solutions to overcome them.
So it's things like poverty, and hunger, disease.
And then from my point of view, also,
things like equality in education, so how do we
level the playing field.
And the first year is sort of more your
theoretical foundation year.
So we have four modules, and every two weeks,
a new module within that module gets released,
so effectively 16 modules overall in that first year.
And then after that 8 week period,
we have the residential week,
so it's sort of structured learning
through a virtual learning environment.
And then from there we have the residential week,
and after that is about a one month period
during which time we complete
our sixth month for that module.
So first year is structured sort of one, two, three, four,
and then the last module is on research methods,
and research methodology.
You know I finished my undergrad degree in 1988,
which of course is a long time ago,
and then in 1999 I finished my MBA,
so sort of, probably 10, 11 years
on from that I did do another sort of learning exercise,
which I think broadens you out as an individual
in your career progression.
So really, I wanted to do something
that was outside of my comfort zone,
learning something new, and also that I could apply
in my work, so in that regard, social innovation,
having an impact in the world, making changes,
but because I primarily work with young people
that are trying to change the world,
if I can approach that from a more academic level,
that means I can be useful, more useful in imparting
that knowledge to other people.
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- You do work with the New Zealand Business Women's Network,
tell me a bit more about that.
- Well, you know, lots of Kiwis always come
to the UK, or Australians as well,
and that's one of those things
that's sort of like a home away from home.
So first Monday of every month
there's sort of a social meeting,
and then lots of events around that.
There's lots of activities, and also, you know,
things to help people, and develop them in their careers,
so that's where the mentor program comes in,
and they run a formal program for a lot of different things.
- And so how do you balance,
both now course work and, sort of,
mentorship and investing, all of that.
So how do you balance it all?
- When you grow up with having lots of kids
and lots of their friends around, you know,
that does demand quite a large proportion
of your time, so now that we've sort of
come for the second vie we've got a lot of,
you know, there's a lot less people in the house,
the house is a lot smaller, and so,
really I've got a whole lot of spare time,
that I didn't have before I
- Right, you're not dealing with four kids now.
- No, no, so I think in that regard, I am an early riser,
I've always been fairly productive, I think, in what I do,
and because I love what I'm doing,
I don't sort of watch the clock,
or say that wow, my days are so full.
So there's, it's one of those things,
it's about how you use your time, how you look at it,
how you plan your week, and you can fit everything in
if you, you know, organize yourself well.
- Right.
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- What advice would give to someone who's thinking about
maybe returning to school after not having been at school,
wanting to, sort of, get a new type of degree?
- Preparation is the key, so really I spent
quite a bit of time looking at what was available,
what might be a field that sort of met
my interests and something that would be new learning
for me as well, as opposed to something
that I was entirely comfortable with.
- Were you finding similar programs
to the Cambridge Masters in Innovation program, elsewhere?
Or is it pretty unique?
- It's a fairly new field of study,
so yes there are other universities
that offer something similar,
the Cambridge one, I think sort of,
although it's fairly new, I think in a way,
it's quite nice to be at the start of something new,
as opposed to something that, you know,
becomes more generic as time goes by,
so this particular program, we are the second cohort,
there's been a lot of interaction with the first cohort,
to decide the best way to structure the program
going forward, so it's sort of a moving, growing,
leaning, sort of, opportunity for everybody.
The thing that's surprised me was, sort of,
just the vast breadth of people that had been
admitted to my cohort.
So they are so broad,
from so many different types of organizations,
from, sort of, big corporate right down to,
you know, on the ground charities and NGOs,
working in very difficult countries.
And sort of everybody in between that.
We've got people that are on the ground
in Iraq working with political prisoners,
or neurosurgeons in hospital.
People working with the homeless,
all sorts of things that when you get
that perspective, it's all coming
from a base of people that care about the world,
and so it's quite collaborative,
and everybody's saying, you know,
there are lots of different models for doing things,
and so, there's been quite a lot of sharing
with people in the cohort about their jobs,
their experiences, the difficulties they're having,
and making impactful change, and often,
good solutions can be found within the group.
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